Field
The present disclosure generally relates to item tracking devices, and more particularly, to tracking a quantity of items.
Description of the Related Art
It is well known in the medical community, and in particular, in hospitals, to provide centrally located medication and supply dispensing stations, such as cabinet 100 illustrated in FIG. 1. Such generally accessible cabinets 100 serve several functions including providing a centralized distribution point of medicines and supplies to patients.
Some of these cabinets 100 include hardwired buttons (e.g., physically connected to a circuit assembly of the station) in order to track quantities of supplies within the station. For example, the cabinet 100 includes a return button 102 and a take button 104, indicating to the cabinet's computer system 106 the removal or addition, respectively, of an item from an inventory for the item in a container 110 (e.g., a shelf). These buttons 102 and 104 require multiple manual interactions by a user to be associate the actions triggered by the buttons 102 and 104 with items in the cabinet 100.
For example, when a user wants to add a new item to the inventory housed in the cabinet 100, it usually requires a minimum of nine steps. Specifically, as illustrated in the process 200 of FIG. 2, in step 201, a user would first need to log in to the computer system 106 of the cabinet 100 to place the cabinet 100 into a mode that recognizes that the user intends to load a supply of items in the container 110 and assign buttons 102 and 104 to the item. Next, in step 202, the user opens the container 110 to access the space within the container, in step 203, the user loads the supply of items in the container 110, and in step 204, selects the buttons 102 and 104 to associate the actions triggered by the buttons 102 and 104 with a change in the supply of the item in the container 110. In step 205, the user selects a description for the item and a quantity of the item (e.g., indicating the supply) to associate with the buttons 102 and 103, and confirms the selection in step 206. In decision step 207, if the user decides to associate another item to other buttons, the process 200 returns to step 203, otherwise the user in step 208 decides whether there are more containers 110 in the cabinet 100 to load with a supply of another item. If there are more containers to load with a supply of another item, the process 200 proceeds to step 209, in which the current container is closed, and another container that is to be loaded with the supply of the other item is opened, and then the process 200 returns to step 203. Otherwise, if there are no more containers to load with a supply of another item, the process moves to final step 210, in which the user logs out of the computer system 106 of the cabinet 100.
By way of another example, when a user wants to reorganize items housed in a container in a cabinet, or add a different item to a fully stocked cabinet, it usually requires a minimum of fourteen steps that include requiring a user to disassociate an item from a pair of buttons and then re-associate the item with another pair of buttons. Specifically, as illustrated in the process 300 of FIG. 3, in step 301, a user would first need to log in to the computer system 106 of the cabinet 100 to place the cabinet 100 into a mode that recognizes that the user intends to reorganize items in the container 110 and reassign different buttons 102 and 104 to the item. Next, in step 302, the user opens the container 110 to access the space within the container, in step 303, the user unloads the supply of items from a location in the container 110, in step 304, selects the buttons 102 and 103 to disassociate from the supply of the item in the container 110, and in step 305, confirms the selection. In decision step 306, if the user wants to disassociate another item in the container 110 from buttons, the process 300 returns to step 304, otherwise the process proceeds to step 307.
In step 305, the user reloads the items unloaded in step 303 to a new location in the container 110, and in step 308 selects a new pair of buttons (associated with the new location) for the same container 110 to associate with the supply of the item. In step 309, the user selects a description for the item and a quantity of the item (e.g., indicating the supply) to associate with the new pair of buttons 102 and 103, and confirms the selection in step 310. In decision step 311, if the user decides that no other items need to be associated with a new pair of buttons (i.e., no other items were selected to be reorganized in steps 303-306), the process 300 proceeds to decision step 312, otherwise the process 300 returns to step 308. In decision step 312, if the user decides to load (e.g., reorganize) items in another container, then in step 313 the user closes the current container 110 and opens another container, and then the process 300 returns to step 303, otherwise, if the user decides not to load (e.g., reorganize) items in another container, the process 300 proceeds to step 314 in which the current open container 110 is closed, and then in step 315, the user logs out of the computer system 106 of the cabinet 100.
Additionally, adding new stock to the cabinet 100 is a distinct process from restocking or reorganizing the cabinet 100 when such stock exceeds space provided in the cabinet 100. Specifically, a user performing a restock of an item has to establish a button association with the item prior to restocking the item in the cabinet 100. On the other hand, if the user wants to add a new item to the cabinet, the user must use a completely separate process
Consequently, current cabinets 100 are difficult to reorganize, causing inefficiencies in both cabinet space utilization and responsiveness to changes in inventory quantity and selection. Inventory in a container 110 is rarely static as a new supply of items takes the place of other supplies over time, and inventory optimization efforts cause the required container space for each item to change. In these cases, replacing one item requires the reorganization of many items on the shelves, making the process 300 longer. As illustrated above, for each movement of an item, the user must remove the association of the item to its buttons and re-associate the item to another set of buttons. Even the allocation of additional space in a container for more stock of one item can cause the user to perform re-associations for several items displaced by reorganization. For example, it is not unusual for a user to have to move multiple items to accommodate a single new item or an increase in stock for an item. Consequently, reconfiguration and optimization of container space often takes several days.
As a simple example, assume container 1 currently contains gloves and container 2 currently contains bandages. If it is desired to switch these items so that container 1 contains bandages and container 2 contains gloves, the cumbersome processes described above would have to be followed, due to the hardwired and permanent nature of the take and return buttons and the current methodology.
Unfortunately, such reconfiguration and/or optimization, such as the steps of processes 200 and 300, are performed at the cabinet 100, rendering the cabinet unavailable to dispense medications to other users during such reconfiguration. For example, a pharmacy technician is often responsible to load 200 or reorganize 300 supplies in a cabinet 100, thereby effectively taking the cabinet 100 offline while nurses and other healthcare professionals who desire to use the cabinet 100 to dispense medications must wait. This causes undue delay in using the cabinets 100, especially in a hospital setting. In many cases, hospitals attempt to avoid this concern by leaving spaces in a cabinet 100 open or avoid reconfiguring the cabinet 100 altogether.